[2022] 多読/extensive reading challenge

[NicoleRauch]

@Jfredel78

How do everyone else’s experiences line up with the guidelines above?

2-3 new words per page? I’m happy when I get less than 2-3 new (or forgotten ) words per sentence

@Jfredel78

Just wondering, does anyone feel like they’re reading above their level?

Yes, constantly, that’s why reading still takes a long time for me. But if I enjoy the books, then I don’t mind.
Also, I think I’m a slow reader in any language - I tend to read for 100% comprehension whatever text or language it may be, even in my mother tongue, so there’s that

I noticed that recently I have started dropping books where I either don’t like the writing style or the contents because I want to get something nice out of them now that they are still so hard to read - which often drives me to pick even harder books
The Saikawa&Moe books are indeed a nice middle ground - they are not too hard, the number of unknown words is not too high, but they are still pretty interesting.

@Jfredel78

Am I reading too far above my level?

Not sure such a thing exists tbh… If you enjoy reading the book, and if you’re not annoyed by the slow speed, then why not!

(EDIT: Oh and when you’re looking for English language books for your students, I found the books by Astrid Lindgren amazingly approachable for English learners, and they are also beautiful stories. I’m currently reading The Brothers Lionheart with one of my Japanese language partners and although he is not very proficient in English he can get along quite ok most of the time.)

[Vanilla]

I think the whole thing is a scam.

If you wanna read something then just read it. If you don’t want to, then don’t. The only time reading level plays any role in my opinion is if you want to reach a level above the average native. Then you gotta start picking stuff out once you get to an advanced level and familiar books might only give you a dozen new words or so. But thats a story for after you’re already comfortably literate. Getting literate, literally just read what you want and you’ll become able to comfortably read it soon enough.

[Jfredel78]

I believe the theory behind this is that reading at too high a level prevents you from really absorbing the new words you’re reading, which would allow you to improve your reading speed and become more fluent in general. I’m not an expert though.

[Vanilla]

@Jfredel78

I believe the theory behind this is that reading at too high a level prevents you from really absorbing the new words you’re reading, which would allow you to improve your reading speed and become more fluent in general. I’m not an expert though.

I suppose I can’t talk too much about theory, but I read glorified porn with harder words than any regular novel I’ve read (apart from maybe ningen shikkaku) before I was even able to read katakana or learned verb conjugations and I improved plenty fast imo. And if thats not considered above your level then I’d say you don’t have to worry about anything you’re doing.

[Jfredel78]

Haha, thanks for boosting my confidence. Time to read some more 乱歩.

[vonnutje]

@Jfredel78

Just wondering, does anyone feel like they’re reading above their level? I feel like the Saikawa & Moe books are a good difficulty level for me. Especially now, I’m cruising through with no more than a few new words on each page - and I can just infer the meaning without looking up the word in a lot of cases.

When you just start reading, it is not weird to encounter sentences in which you cannot even figure out when a word begins and ends in Japanese because they don’t use spacing xD Apart from that, for me right now it is really normal when the only word in the sentence I know are 私, 俺, 俺 and the verb (not the conjugation of the verb most of the time…). Does this mean that reading is not difficult? Yes. Does this mean I have no fun reading? Absolutely not! I still enjoy reading, enjoy learning new words and grammar points as I go.

As long as you enjoy what you are doing, you are doing a good job!

I really liked this video on the topic: My Japanese Study Method! - (Game Gengo 10k Special) - YouTube

[Thud]

I think I’m always reading above my level. Of course as your level does change slowly that means seeking out new things. For now that’s not really a problem for me. Everything I read was somehow slightly more difficult than the previous thing, except maybe the pokemon game I’m playing rn which is about my level. However that still gives me more new vocab than zelda and I like playing it so it is also useful as learning material.

Maybe that’s just my way of dealing with it. Ignoring the need to understand everything. It will come together eventually as long as I keep moving.

[rodan]

I agree with what other people in this thread have said about this, and I’d also point out that I think the rule was meant for like, a kid picking out chapter books to read. Kids who need encouragement to read are, I would think, more likely to get disinterested and stop than a motivated adult, and they’re probably not using a dictionary or anki to help process those new words either…
I don’t necessarily agree with it in the intended context either (I know I didn’t follow it when I was a kid…), but I think the encouragement and easy ramp-up meant to be gained by seeing mostly words you know is less of a benefit to consciously studying adults than kids, especially if you’ve got a process for dealing with the new words that makes them less painful and more beneficial.

I definitely felt like I was hitting much more than five new words or kanji a page when I was reading 江戸川乱歩 and 横溝正史 and I had a great time and definitely felt like I improved!

[TokeruKonkoyo]

@Jfredel78

On the other hand, for stuff like 江戸川乱歩

とても relatable . That being said, he’s writing style is a good tradeoff between more elaborate grammar and being overly metaphorical, at least to me.

There is a non-zero possibility that I will be reading more this year and I don’t mean articles in Tobira . My WK sub is over in a couple of days and I’m almost done with Tobira as well.

Got a nice backlog of Spy x Family, Your Name, a manga about a Shiba Inu and a girl (forgot name) and some other stuff.

[pocketcat]

@rodan

I definitely felt like I was hitting much more than five new words or kanji a page when I was reading 江戸川乱歩 and 横溝正史 and I had a great time and definitely felt like I improved!

@TokeruKonkoyo

@Jfredel78

On the other hand, for stuff like 江戸川乱歩

とても relatable . That being said, he’s writing style is a good tradeoff between more elaborate grammar and being overly metaphorical, at least to me.

FWIW 江戸川乱歩’s adult vs kid books (ex 怪人二十面相) are worlds apart in vocab spread but the writing style is the same. I read 少年探偵団 and looked up maybe ~20 words the whole book but 黄金仮面 was overwhelming (I also had a paperback copy, which played into this, though).

[Thud]

Oh you got the manga? I think there was also a light novel of that series. It looks pretty cute despite its premise.

[TokeruKonkoyo]

@pocketcat

FWIW 江戸川乱歩’s adult vs kid books (ex 怪人二十面相) are worlds apart in vocab spread but the writing style is the same. I read 少年探偵団 and looked up maybe ~20 words the whole book but 黄金仮面 was overwhelming (I also had a paperback copy, which played into this, though).

Oh yeah, the children’s books aren’t that bad. The last one I tried reading was D坂の殺人事件 and this was a little loaded on vocab, but the one before, 天空の魔人 wasn’t so bad. 少年探偵団 is still on my todo list .

@Thud

Oh you got the manga? I think there was also a light novel of that series. It looks pretty cute despite its premise.

You mean the 世界の終わりに柴犬と? I didn’t know there is a LN. Of 君の名は I have the light novel. Trying to go a little into that direction as well.

[Thud]

@TokeruKonkoyo

You mean the 世界の終わりに柴犬と? I didn’t know there is a LN. Of 君の名は I have the light novel. Trying to go a little into that direction as well.

Ah, I was wrong. Not sure if I mixed it up or if the title reminded me of a LN lol. And yeah I might read a few of those to make the transition to novels easier as well.

[Naphthalene]

@Naphthalene

And, being true to my words, I just read the first volume of 蜘蛛ですが、なにか? yesterday.

It was actually pretty fun, when abstracting the writing style. I’ve also noticed that, now that I have read of few such series, I’m much more tolerant to it.

I finished volume 4 yesterday (well, technically today, since it was just past midnight).
I see I didn’t really comment on any book past the first one, but as can be since from my reading speed, it was pretty fun… until volume 4, I guess. Volume 3 had a bunch of plot twists I didn’t see coming, which really pushed me to read forward… but then volume 4 happened.
It’s still okay, but somehow the main developments of the book were disappointing, I guess.
I’m also not convinced by the カティア/シュン romcom dynamic (context: they were close friends before being both reincarnated, both men). カティア keeps pointing out that she is a woman now, while strongly hinting at her feelings for シュン, who basically invariably thinks something around the line “I wonder what he means by that”.
I guess the scene where he tries to suggest to another woman who can’t swim that he can carry her, leading カティア to say instead

「フェイ、死ぬ気で泳ぎなさい」

was kinda funny, but that’s the only one I somewhat enjoyed. Also, there’s now “fan service” as well (since characters finally grew old enough?), which is a bit sad. Oh well.

Anyway, I have to return the 伯爵と妖精 books to the library, so it’s a good time to get back to that series. I guess I may keep reading 蜘蛛 in the near future, just like I randomly went back to kuma^4.

Edit:

@valkow

@Naphthalene

Is that 「蜘蛛ですが何か?」?

Yes! Based on very little, I feel like you might enjoy it (to some extent, at least). (Some of that depends on how saturated you are with stuff like this, but to me it was mostly new, so.)

Oh, speaking of that, I did enjoy the first 3 books a lot, so that was true!

Edit2: reading through all the 蜘蛛 posts in this thread

@valkow

Finished 蜘蛛ですが、なにか 5 to reach 20 books (from my goal of 30). The book went by really fast because 1. the sections I like were really good, as always, so I sped through them, and 2. the sections that aren’t those sections, I always look ahead to see how far to the next section I like, and then speed through to get there.

Well, it seems that we like the same parts, so that’s a good sign! I may keep reading that series much sooner than expected, then

[valkow]

I also enjoyed the first 3 books the most! From book 1 I didn’t care about any of the non-spider parts, and as those got more important I moved to disliking them. I’m not sure the spider parts are going in a direction I’ll enjoy either. I haven’t been able to get myself to read past volume 5, so if you do and think they’re worth the time, let me know! I still find the main character’s POV funny and I like a lot of the spider-focused action and strategy.

[Wildjinjer]

@Naphthalene

活字中毒

There needs to be a word for this in English! I have this. No one understands me when I say that I read too much.

I’m at least trying to transfer my 活字中毒 over to Japanese books, so that I can leverage it to get better at reading Japanese.

[KazeTachinu]

For those who are curious how Nahoko Uehashi’s three big series compare in volume:

獣の奏者 Series Total:
4 books (文庫本)
1920 pages (480 average)
~716.000 characters
Not included: 1 spin-off book

守り人 Series Total:
10 books (軽装版)
3538 pages (354 average)
~1.500.000 characters
Not included: 3 spin-off books

鹿の王 Series Total:
4 books (文庫本)
1295 pages (324 average)
~507.000 characters
Not included: 1 spin-off book

[Vanilla]

I actually used to have a solid steel book mark with this laser engraved in it. My dad made it for me since he just happens to have access to a multi million dollar laser at work that will laser engraved any image you upload…

…I engraved a lot of anime characters

EDIT: found the pic

And since I’m sure everyone is more interested in the anime characters. First one is Akame in glass and second one is pain in wood. In the Akame reflection you can also see one of my other yojijukugos in wood

[KazeTachinu]

Done with 鹿の王 Vol. 1!

Of course it ends with a cliffhanger, but I’m used to that from Uehashi’s books already. (To be fair. this is is only the first half of the hardcover version).

I particularly loved the last third of the book: The part about the time Van spent in the mountains and how close he got to the small tribe living there. There was no action going on at all, but I always love these small moments of transquility and that focus on daily life and character development the most in Uehashi’s books. Reminded me a lot of Erin.

I also like the focus on deers/wolves, though they aren’t as exciting as the 闘蛇 and 王獣 in Erin – and by that I don’t mean the creatures themselves, but concepts like the 音無し笛, the breeding and how they were tied into the lore.

In 鹿の王 I’m most excited about what’s behind the disease/epidemic – and especially Van’s role – and Yuna’s growth that I hope will be a theme of the other books.

As in Erin I don’t care so much about the politics. Uehashi does present us a multifaceted world with a lot of smart ideas and well-presented conflicts, but I personally hope this won’t take the center stage. I’m also bad with katakana fantasy names, so the names of all the places and side characters already start to confuse me.

I’m planning read vol. 2 soon, but will probably read 1-2 other books before.

[pocketcat]

@KazeTachinu

I’m also bad with katakana fantasy names, so the names of all the places and side characters already start to confuse me.

I have this problem with regular names I started making cheatsheets when it seems like there’s going to be a lot of characters, this is a snippet of my sheet for my current reading (おやすみ、夢なき子):